The Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=239&letter=H
Scholar and miracle-worker of the first century; pupil of Johanan b. Zakkai (Ber. 34b)... His popularity, however, which he enjoyed throughout his life, and which rendered him immortal among the mystics, rests not on his scholarship, but on his saintliness and thaumaturgic powers. From the several maxims attributed to him it may be seen that he was a member of the Ḥasidim: "Whosoever's fear of sin precedes his learning, his learning will endure; but where learning precedes fear of sin, learning will not endure"; "Where a man's works are greater than his learning, his learning will stand; but where his learning is greater than his works, his learning will not stand";... There are, also, other teachings which betray his Ḥasidic schooling. Ḥa-nina, like all the ancient Ḥasidim, prayed much, and by his prayers he is said to have effected many miracles..Previously we spoke about the Temple of Aesculapius, the Greek god of Health and Medicine, and the fact that it appears that illnesses were cured there. I have been reading about a whole set of Hindu holy men who wave their hands in the air and produce items, as if by magic.
But blessed are they who have not seen such things, yet believe. Miracles seem to be not as scarce as hens' teeth after all. Materializations, levitations - you name it - seem to come and go as fashion styles.
God is in our works and doings, not in the things that amaze us, befuddle us, and rip away our sense of equilibrium. All of us shall probably come across some miracles today. Let's keep our wits about us.
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4 comments:
God is hard to find, most of the time. I wish I had your confidence. Or is it faith?
I don't have faith. I expect God all the time. When I'm down, I'm down and when I'm up, I'm up and I don't think it has anything connection with God.
But when you really need Him, you WILL find Him. That is crunch time when the good influences in your life are so important and need to outweigh the bad influences.
That's why I keep saying the myths and stories of a society are so important: when people feel the real crunch, they have to be ready to be mentally in the right place; the only way to be mentally in the right place is to have the narratives of overcoming the odds and winning through to the Good.
When crunch time comes, you do not have much time to decide. The right choice has to be almost second nature.
My recent departure from a Church I've been so intimately involved with for so many years weighs heavily. I suppose this is a natural feeling. I'm almost positive I've done the right thing, but adjusting to a new way of being with God is challenging.
Some people are entirely well served by a church, and some are not. I think they have to go out on their own.
I think these quests are very ancient, and I further think that "visionary experiences" were responsible for many parts of human knowledge and society far beyond the usual religious visions.
Nowadays we do not have visions, because we understand our minds and souls differently; we call everything intuition and bright ideas.
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